Dragon’s Lair (1983)
Its game play was maddeningly rudimentary. Its plot was paint-by-numbers fantasy, with a knight rescuing a princess from a dragon. It was twice as expensive to play as the rest of the games in the arcade but, my god, was that thing beautiful. Film animator Don Bluth (“The Secret of NIMH”) was brought in to lend a little old-school Art to the new art form and the result is one of only three video games to be included in the Smithsonian’s permanent collection. In addition, “Dragon’s Lair” also, somewhat inadvertently, created the QuickTime event, a staple for button mashers to this day. Make the exact right move at the right time and you would see the winning animation. Do anything else and Dirk the Daring gets Singed.
